Bakhtin, M. M. The Dialogic Imagination 1934 Russian (1895-1975)
Accepts that language is a sign system but rejects that meaning is found in the psychological processing of signs. Language can only be understood as dialogue – structural linguistics or literary stylistics fail to account for the parts that intention, interpretation, social context, and historical circumstance paly in the creation of meaning
“To make an utterance means to appropriate the words of others and populate them with one’s own intention”
Dialogism: the constant endless state of intentional and value-laden dialogue into wich every word enters
Heteroglossia: the diversity and stratification of languages or voices to be found within a work.
Chronotope: the meeting place of these voices, “the place where the knots of narrative are tied and untied.
“ Form and content in discourse are one, once we understand that verbal discourse is a social phenomenon—social throughout its entire range and n each and every one of its factors, from the sound image to the furthest reaches of abstract meaning.”
Stylistics is not concerned with living discourse…its abstraction kills the social power and overtones of the work, the social life of discourse. From the section on “Discourse in the Novel”
Bakhtin is not thinking of abstract linguistic minimum but of language as worldview. A process of sociopolitical and cultural centralization, but this occurs in the midst of heteroglossia, which grows as long as language is alive.
“ the authentic environment of an utterance, the environment in which it lives and takes shape, is dialogized heteroglossia, anonymous and social language, but simultaneously concrete, filled with specific content and accentuated as individual utterance” Each utterance is at once individual and part of the whole monstrosity.
“No living word relates to an object in a singular way; between the word and its object, between the word and the speaking subject, there exists an elastic environment of other alien words.
His chronotopes are related to Burke’s screens. Chronotopes, where the knots are tied.
Chronotopes coexist in varying ways within a work or body of a work.
Literary context is vital
Author is outside the text.
Studying other genres is like studying dead languages, studying the novel is like studying a young language. Novel is still developing; we can see the action of the process at work.
Chps I. lays out terms, makes the case for novel as only appropriate genre, II. Stylistics, language in generic contexts. III. Chronotope in the novel, equals time and space “connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships artistically expressed in literature, frozen in time and space. IV. Discourse in the novel, study of verbal art can and must overcome the divorce between an abstract “formal” approach and an equally abstract “ideological; approach. Form and content are one!
“Problem with Speech Genres” – genres are useful category – recognize that genres are the means of adapting an utterance to a complex situation, a situation that includes a history of previous speech acts and immediate context involving socially situated speakers
Study of genres focuses more on specific aspects and less on the general aspects that make items part of a speech genre
Bakhtin talks not only about literary study of genre, but also rhetorical study and linguistic study.
19th century linguistic theory
language arises from man’s need to express himself
speaker and object are the only necessities for language
communication is a secondary function
This entire theory is flawed, Bakhtin argues, because language not only needs an audience, but because each utterance we make considers an audience (even if that audience is the speaker)
Primary utterances cannot be studied through secondary utterances because they are changed by their occurrence in the secondary utterance.
Primary utterances are those made during daily communication (and other such verbal forms) or through similar written forms (requisitions, email). When these utterances are put into a secondary utterance, they are either mimicked or are now taken out of context so that the original audience response is no longer valid. This is where the primary utterance is changed
A speech genre is a relatively stable type of an utterance that corresponds to a specific typical situation.
The term speech genre encompasses such daily activities as greetings, military commands, conversations, etc. Each speech genre is different based on social, economic, and relationship status (speaker and audience) and each requires a specific tone.
However, a speaker can still use intonation to express individuality and has the ability to mix genres from various spheres.
Since this is everyday conversation and communication, it goes without saying that the better our command of genres, the better we implement a free speech plan.
This free speech plan is what allows us to mix genres, comprehend new ways to use intonation, and better grasp the specific genre appropriate to specific communication.
One reason for this improved speech plan is that speech genres organize our daily and situational speech in a manner that is quite similar to the way grammatical rules organize sentences and paragraphs.
An utterance is everything that a person says at one time. An utterance begins when the speaker starts talking and ends when the next speaker begins. An utterance can be as much as a single word or can go on for hours
Utterances are individual and reflect the speaker’s individuality.
Utterances do not exist alone - must be regarded as a response to the preceding utterances in the given sphere
Speaker constructs the utterance while taking the response of the audience into account so the utterance is already aware of the potential for future utterances.
Words and sentences do not have authors. This only occurs with an utterances.
Sentences acquire expressive aspects only when they become utterances.
Utterances are constructed with an audience reaction in mind. The utterance is formed before the words.
Bakhtin, M. M. The Dialogic Imagination 1934 Russian (1895-1975)